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New to macOS - asking for suggestion for deletion app...

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pax-eterna

macrumors regular
Original poster
Hi all,

New to macOS, and want to ask if there are any single purchase apps that will completely remove an app and all associated data from macOS 26?
 
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BrianBaughn said:
I don't think there's any app that can guarantee to work like that on 100% of third-party apps. I've even seen uninstaller apps provided by the developer that failed in this regard.

Having said that I usually use AppCleaner…the one from here:

Click to expand...
Just make sure you give the app full disk access under "Privacy and Security" otherwise you won't remove everything.
 
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pax-eterna said:
Ok I checked under those instructions and the AppCleaner App does not appear anywhere there, even under the Utilities sub folder.
Click to expand...
You have to add the app... this is what it should look like.
 

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pax-eterna said:
New to macOS, and want to ask if there are any single purchase apps that will completely remove an app and all associated data from macOS 26?
Click to expand...
It might be different in Windows, but this is how I view this whole issue on mac:

There is seldom any need to 'remove an app and all associated data'. If you don't want to see an app in the apps folder any longer, just drag it to the trash. 99% of apps will have only some settings and prefs files in the ~library folder, which take up almost no space, and cause no harm to performance or anything else.

This comes up every now and then, where people feel they should 'clean up' their computer, and install some 'cleaner app' - and it's easy to understand that one can experience a feeling of satisfaction after getting rid of all the 'junk files' as they often call it. Like after a house cleaning.

But it does nothing to the general 'health' of the computer. On the contrary, deleting lots of files in batches, might easily remove stuff that you might later find was actually needed.

Some apps install big files, often media libraries etc, but most often you will be aware of this. F.ex, I have a symphony orchestra plugin/app with 50GB of audio samples. The app settings lets me decide where to store it, and therefore I'm very aware of it's existence, and I can delete it manually.

If your main goal is to free up disk space, I can recommend DaisyDisk. It sorts all files on a disk by folder size, so it's very easy to quickly find what's taking up space, and delete by 'moving it to the collector' and delete the collector. (Don't pay too much attention to the fancy 'sector' graphics in the GUI, just use the horisontal 'path' line at the top, and the vertical list on the right, to navigate.)
 
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Ben J. said:
It might be different in Windows, but this is how I view this whole issue on mac:

There is seldom any need to 'remove an app and all associated data'. If you don't want to see an app in the apps folder any longer, just drag it to the trash. 99% of apps will have only some settings and prefs files in the ~library folder, which take up almost no space, and cause no harm to performance or anything else.

This comes up every now and then, where people feel they should 'clean up' their computer, and install some 'cleaner app' - and it's easy to understand that one can experience a feeling of satisfaction after getting rid of all the 'junk files' as they often call it. Like after a house cleaning.

But it does nothing to the general 'health' of the computer. On the contrary, deleting lots of files in batches, might easily remove stuff that you might later find was actually needed.

Some apps install big files, often media libraries etc, but most often you will be aware of this. F.ex, I have a symphony orchestra plugin/app with 50GB of audio samples. The app settings lets me decide where to store it, and therefore I'm very aware of it's existence, and I can delete it manually.

If your main goal is to free up disk space, I can recommend DaisyDisk. It sorts all files on a disk by folder size, so it's very easy to quickly find what's taking up space, and delete by 'moving it to the collector' and delete the collector. (Don't pay too much attention to the fancy 'sector' graphics in the GUI, just use the horisontal 'path' line at the top, and the vertical list on the right, to navigate.)
Click to expand...

Thanks for that nice explanation. Yeah in windows the Registry keeps getting cluttered with all these orphan files that after a time slow down the boot and other things. Hence the need to completely remove stuff. and most app uninstall routines always usually leave a bit of themselves hanging around, and can take quite some time to track down.
 
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Ben J. said:
It might be different in Windows, but this is how I view this whole issue on mac:

There is seldom any need to 'remove an app and all associated data'. If you don't want to see an app in the apps folder any longer, just drag it to the trash. 99% of apps will have only some settings and prefs files in the ~library folder, which take up almost no space, and cause no harm to performance or anything else.

This comes up every now and then, where people feel they should 'clean up' their computer, and install some 'cleaner app' - and it's easy to understand that one can experience a feeling of satisfaction after getting rid of all the 'junk files' as they often call it. Like after a house cleaning.

But it does nothing to the general 'health' of the computer. On the contrary, deleting lots of files in batches, might easily remove stuff that you might later find was actually needed.

Some apps install big files, often media libraries etc, but most often you will be aware of this. F.ex, I have a symphony orchestra plugin/app with 50GB of audio samples. The app settings lets me decide where to store it, and therefore I'm very aware of it's existence, and I can delete it manually.

If your main goal is to free up disk space, I can recommend DaisyDisk. It sorts all files on a disk by folder size, so it's very easy to quickly find what's taking up space, and delete by 'moving it to the collector' and delete the collector. (Don't pay too much attention to the fancy 'sector' graphics in the GUI, just use the horisontal 'path' line at the top, and the vertical list on the right, to navigate.)
Click to expand...
Your answer is the correct one. "cleaner" apps are almost always unnecessary, and once in a blue moon they mess up and remove something they shouldn't.
 
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BrianBaughn said:
I don't think there's any app that can guarantee to work like that on 100% of third-party apps. I've even seen uninstaller apps provided by the developer that failed in this regard.

Having said that I usually use AppCleaner…the one from here:

Click to expand...
I also recommend this app. It's free, easy to use, and works.
 
No one else has mentioned ForkLift – it's not its main function, but deleting apps alongside their associated Library data is an included feature! A great app from an independent developer, especially if you need an alternate file browser or network file transfer utility.

Ben J's advice is good for anyone who needs it, and if your goal is actually just to reclaim disk space from large files in general, DaisyDisk is also my recommendation.
 
I just use Finder to go to ~/Library and clean any left over cruft there. I think macos has the best method of uninstalling apps - drag and drop. Of course not all applications follow that mechanism, but I much prefer this over windows
 
For completion: If you're comfortable with the command line, then ncdu is the go to tool for identifying space issues. It's also much faster than Finder for navigating around the file system. Take care with deletions, though, because the files are not moved to Trash.

I don't completely agree with @Ben J. There are some apps that cache large amounts of data within ~/Library

To find files related to an app, you can use the find command: find . -iname "*bit_of_filename_to_search_for*" The quotes and asterisks are required. (-iname is the case insensitive version of -name)
 
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